


A Childish Game

by accurst_writer



Category: Evillious Chronicles
Genre: Angst, Gen, at this point no-one's surprised, that's almost all i write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 10:57:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21073775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/accurst_writer/pseuds/accurst_writer
Summary: The story of a game between two children, and how they both remembered this game even as they grew.





	A Childish Game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ateremun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ateremun/gifts).

> Gifted to Ateremun because I may have slightly stolen a base idea from them. Slightly. Totally.

“Five!” “No, that was a foul!” The joyous shouts of children playing echoed through the halls of Lucifenia Palace. “I win!” “No way! Another round!” The culprits of the shouting? The young prince and princess of Lucifenia.

“Okay, Alexiel, please teach me the new game you mentioned!” The girl sits on the floor, watching her brother intently by the candlelight. He grins. “Alright. So, you place the jacks down like this, bounce the ball once, pick one up, and keep going until you get a foul. Like normal, but you don’t put the jacks back in between bounces, you just keep going until you’ve picked them all up. If you get a foul, it’s my turn. We keep going until there are no jacks left, and then the person with the most is the winner.” They played a few rounds, the glittering gold and silver jacks spread out on the floor in front of them. “2!” “No way, that was definitely a foul! You dropped one!”

The pair continued to play until they heard a knock at the door. “Prince Alexiel, Princess Riliane? I’m here to tell you both to go to bed, it’s late!” The twins both stared at the clock. It was 9 pm. “Sorry, Mariam! We lost track of time!” They scrambled into their beds instantly, and Mariam came in to blow out the candle. 

From that day on, the two only played jacks using that method, and they played a lot. After a while, however, Riliane lost interest in jacks, and the bag was left on top of the books in the bookshelf, forgotten and gathering dust.

9 years later, Riliane was awoken by nightmares in the middle of the night and went to the bookshelf in her room in order to find something to read. Reading helped her calm down, and then she could go back to sleep. When she found the book she wanted, it was on the top shelf, so she stood on her tiptoes to pull it down. With a book in hand, she noticed there was something else behind it, so she dragged her chair over and stood on it, reaching up. From behind the books fell a bag which must’ve been there for years.

She opened the bag and saw the gold and silver jacks she remembered from her childhood. She went and sat down on the floor, tipping the bag up and letting the jacks fall out. A ball fell out too. She threw it in the air and picked up one jack before catching the ball again. “I can still do it?” She muttered. For a while, she sat there, absentmindedly bouncing the ball and turning the jacks over in her fingers. There were only 8 jacks, although Riliane was sure there had been ten when she was a child. Back when Alexiel was alive. 

Knock, knock. “My lady?” She hadn’t noticed anyone was there. “Yes?” She looked up at the door. Allen, one of her servants, stepped in. “Forgive me, my lady, I couldn’t sleep and then I heard a noise, so I thought I should check that you were alright.” The dim light of the one candle Riliane had lit when she awoke cast shadows across his face as he walked closer, making it seem almost familiar to her. Well, of course it was familiar! She saw him every day. She was obviously tired. “Oh, I’m fine. I just found something from my childhood.” She gestured to the set of jacks. “Two are missing, however.” Allen looked at his feet for a minute, before saying “Well, I have a set in similar colours. I could go and get two of those if you want to complete your set?” Riliane nodded. 

Within five minutes, Allen was back, holding two jacks in his hand. One gold, and one silver. “Here you go, my lady.” He dropped them into the little pile she already had in front of her. “The colours match almost exactly” She said in a wondering voice. “Where did you get them?” Allen chuckled. “I can’t say I remember, my lady. I’ve had them my whole life.”

She stared at the now-completed set in front of her. “It’s no fun to play on your own, is it?” Without waiting for an answer, she continued. “Sit and play a game with me, Allen?” It wasn’t a request, but an order. He took a seat on the floor opposite her, with the pile of jacks between them. “So, in order to decide who goes first-“ Riliane launched into the instructions on how to play. “I know how to play, my lady.” Riliane shook her head. “But not this version! This is one Alexiel taught me when we were... oh, about 6?” “Five.” It slipped out before Allen could stop it.

She looked at him curiously. “How do you know that?” He scrambled to recover from his error. “I mean, didn’t Prince Alexiel, you know, pass on, when you were five?” Riliane looked somber. “Yes, that’s right. You were right, of course. He did teach me this when we were five, and it was about a month later that he-“ She broke off. Allen instantly felt guilty. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. It was insensitive of me.” Riliane shook her head, before clapping “Anyway, I was teaching you how to play!”

Ten minutes later, and they were finally playing. Riliane won the toss to go first and got three jacks before a foul. Allen then got four. “Oh, you’re a natural! Four? And this is the first time you’ve played this version” Riliane seemed impressed. It wasn’t technically true that this was the first time he’d played it, but some things were best kept secret.

After a few more rounds, Riliane yawned, so Allen offered to tuck her into her bed. “That would be... nice, but first, let me pick these up” She started to gather the jacks into their bag. Flipping them over, she put the last one in, and then glared at him. “You lied to me.” Allen was taken aback. “Did I?” “Yes! You don’t own a set of jacks in the same colours as mine, those two you gave me are mine! As a child, Alexiel and I carved our initials into the side of them. Mine were gold, and his were silver. These all have the initials in! Now tell me, where did you get these? Have you been stealing from me?” Allen, panicked, stuttered “No, of course not! I found those two in the street when I was a child!”

Riliane believed him. “Oh. Well, that’s understandable, I suppose. Thank you, for playing with me.” She walked over to her bed and continued. “I don’t think anyone else would have. I’m too disliked, even hated, by everyone.” Allen felt sorry for her. Even though he’d seen what she’d done, she was just a lonely 14 year old. “I don’t hate you, my lady. I would never hate you.” She looked at his face. “I’m not evil, am I? Tell me.” He stared her directly in the eyes. “You’re not evil, my lady.”

She swung her feet onto the bed and sighed as she lay down. He started to pull the covers over her when she spoke. “You know, if Alexiel was alive today, I like to think he’d have been a bit like you.” Allen choked on thin air and dropped the sheet he was moving. “I don’t know about that, my lady. He’d be a prince, after all, not a common servant like me.” Again, white lies. “Yes, but I mean in temperament! I imagine he would be kind and thoughtful and caring. Like you!” Riliane said. Allen chuckled. “If you say so, my lady.”

He finished tucking her in, and she murmured sleepily “Don’t go. Can you hold my hand until I sleep?” To which he gently took her hand, and sat there. When he thought she was asleep, he muttered “Goodnight, Riliane.” She whispered back “Goodnight, Alexiel.” 

Allen’s mind was whirling. It was obviously an innocent mistake, her calling him Alexiel, because she didn’t know. It must just be that he reminded her of Alexiel, that was all. Because she didn’t know. She didn’t know that Alexiel wasn’t dead. She didn’t know that he, Allen, was her brother, Alexiel. She didn’t know that he hadn’t found those jacks in the street, but had instead taken them from the bag before he left the palace, to remind himself of her. “I’m sorry” He breathed, closing the door behind him as he left.


End file.
